Automated allocation of media campaign assets to time and program in digital media delivery systems

ABSTRACT

A system for automatically managing the delivery of digital media assets allocates the digital media assets to programs so that consumers will receive the digital media assets when they consume the programs. An example is the automated allocation of sponsored videos to television programs. The system includes data stores, a digital media server, and a campaign manager system. The campaign manager system receives consumption data corresponding to digital assets and programs that the consumers have consumed, along with an allocation value or impression delivery value. It then uses that information to automatically allocate digital media assets to digital programs in a campaign.

RELATED APPLICATIONS AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This patent document claims priority to, and is a continuation of, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/000,742, which was filed Jan. 19, 2016,and which in turn claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationNo. 62/104,685 filed Jan. 16, 2015. The disclosures of each prioritypatent application are fully incorporated into this document byreference.

BACKGROUND

This document relates to methods and systems for the allocating,scheduling and delivering campaigns of media assets on media deliverysystems, such as broadcast or cable television (TV), radio, andover-the-top (OTT) delivery systems. In one embodiment, this documentdescribes methods and systems for allocating digital video media assetsto video programming in TV and/or OTT systems.

Currently in TV broadcast systems and other media delivery services, thedecision making processes of advertisement sales systems and trafficsystems are separate from each other. Thus, it is often impossible toschedule campaigns that have been sold. If advertisements are sold butnot fully allocated, the service provider needs to provide the buyerwith makegoods, that is, allocation of future inventory to the buyer forfree in order to compensate for the delivery that failed. The process ofproviding makegoods is a time-consuming, non-revenue-generatingactivity, and involves a large force of thousands of account executives.Similarly inefficient processes are present in other media areas likeradio and digital and in cross-media advertising.

Currently, media service providers do not have optimization to decidewhich campaign requests should be rejected versus accepted, and whatinventory to use to fulfill them. Rather, account executives manuallyconstruct campaigns, often making poor decisions when earmarkinginventory in the process. Current advertising traffic systems have onlyheuristic scheduling. This causes makegoods and lost revenue.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, a system for automatically managing delivery ofdigital media assets via one or more media delivery services (such asdigital video delivery services) includes a first data store containingdigital content files, each of which corresponds to a digital mediaasset, and at least some of which include metadata indicating one ormore campaigns with which the digital content file's digital media assetis associated. The system also includes a second data store (which maybe integrated with or separate from the first data store) containing aninventory of digital programming files, each of which corresponds to oneor more user-selectable media programs (such as videos). The systemincludes a digital video (or other media) server configured to accessthe first data store and the second data store and transmit the digitalcontent files and the digital programming files to media presentationdevices for audience consumption. The system also includes a campaignmanager processor and a non-transitory computer-readable mediumcontaining programming instructions that, when executed, will cause thecampaign manager processor to perform an allocation process.

The allocation process may include receiving consumption datacorresponding to user-selectable media programs and digital media assetsthat various audience members consumed in a first campaign. Theconsumption data may be received directly or indirectly from a set ofmedia presentation devices, or from another source such as a data store.The system also may receive, from a media delivery service thatcorresponds to the digital media server, an inventory of digitalprogramming files that are available for presentation to the mediapresentation devices at future times, along with metadata correspondingto the digital programming files in the inventory. The system willreceive an allocation value. The allocation value may include anunder-allocation value, an over-allocation value, or both anunder-allocation value and an over-allocation value. The system willreceive, from a campaign requestor, a selection of one or moreparameters for a second campaign. The system will then identify a set ofdigital media assets for the second campaign, and it will also analyzethe consumption data and the metadata to identify one or more digitalprogramming files in the inventory to which to allocate at least somethe digital media assets for the second campaign. The system will thenautomatically allocate the digital media assets for the second campaignto the identified digital programming files in the inventory inaccordance with the one or more parameters and so that the allocating isconsistent with the allocation value. The digital programming files withallocated digital media assets may then be presented to audience membersvia video or other media presentation devices in the second campaign.

Optionally, the system also may analyze the consumption data and themetadata to identify one or more additional programming files and futuretimes to which to allocate additional digital media assets correspondingto a remainder of the first campaign. If so, the system mayautomatically select a group of the additional digital media assets andallocate the selected additional digital media assets to the identifiedadditional programming files at future times in accordance with the oneor more parameters for presentation by the digital video server toaudience members as the remainder of the first campaign.

In some embodiments, the system may analyze the consumption data and themetadata to identify a time at which to assign each of the digital mediaassets for the second campaign in accordance with the one or moreparameters. If so, then when automatically allocating the digital mediaassets for the second campaign to the identified digital programmingfiles in the inventory, the system may do so such that each of thedigital media assets for the second campaign will be presented toaudience members at the digital media asset's assigned time.

In some embodiments, when the digital media server presents a mediaprogram corresponding to one of the digital programming files in theinventory, it will do so such that the digital media assets that areallocated to the digital programming file are output to an audiencemember with the first media program via a media presentation device.

Optionally, the digital media delivery service may include a televisionnetwork or networks, and the user-selectable media programs may includetelevision programs that a user may select by causing a videopresentation device to select a channel or on-demand servicecorresponding to one or more of the television networks. In addition,the consumption data for each of the user-selectable media programs andthe digital media assets may include a number of impressions, as well asone or more parameters about audience members who viewed theuser-selectable media programs and the digital media assets.

In some embodiments, when identifying the digital programming files inthe inventory to which to allocate the digital media assets, and whenautomatically allocating the digital media assets for the secondcampaign to the identified digital programming files, the system maysimultaneously allocate the inventory to multiple campaigns. It may doso by identifying a number of expected impressions for the secondcampaign, identifying a number of expected impressions for at least oneadditional campaign, and using an automated process to automaticallyidentify a set of digital programming files to which the digital mediafiles in the second campaign will be allocated so that the number ofdigital media files allocated to each of the digital programming filesin the set remains within the allocation value. The automated processmay include, for example, a greedy algorithm, genetic algorithm, treesearch, integer programming, simulated annealing, local search or tabusearch.

When the system simultaneously allocates multiple campaigns, in someembodiments it may present at least a subset of the campaigns to a uservia a user interface for review. The system may receiving an acceptanceor non-acceptance of each of the presented campaigns via the userinterface. If so, it may implement only the presented campaigns forwhich the system received an acceptance.

When the system simultaneously allocates multiple campaigns, in someembodiments it may determine whether any campaign will conflict with theselected one or more parameters, and if so reject that campaign. Thesystem may also determine whether any candidate campaign will be lessprofitable than a different campaign with which the candidate campaign'sidentified digital programming files in the inventory could instead beused, and if so it may reject the candidate campaign. In eithersituation, the system may then un-allocate the digital media assets fromthe identified digital programming files for any campaign that thecampaign manager processor has rejected.

In some embodiments, the parameters for the second campaign may includea smoothness constraint. If so, then when identifying the digitalprogramming files in the inventory to which to allocate the digitalmedia assets, and when automatically allocating the digital media assetsfor the second campaign to the identified digital programming files inthe inventory, the system may identify a number of expected impressionsfor the second campaign in a scope, wherein the scope is a timeinterval, or the scope is a combination of a time interval and one ormore media delivery services. The system may then allocate the digitalmedia files in the second campaign to the identified digital programmingfiles in accordance with any of multiple options. A first option is thata number of impressions associated with each instance of the scope inthe second campaign satisfies a threshold criterion. The thresholdcriterion is that the instance of the scope be not larger than a firstthreshold, not smaller than a second threshold, or neither larger thanthe first threshold nor smaller than the second threshold. A secondoption is that a number of impressions presented in any instance of thescope during the second campaign is not disproportionately larger than anumber of impressions presented in any other instance of the scopeduring the second campaign. A third option is that a number of spotspresented in any instance of the scope during the second campaign is notlarger than the first threshold, not smaller than the second threshold,or neither larger than the first threshold nor smaller than the secondthreshold. A fourth option is that a number of spots presented in anyinstance of the scope during the second campaign is notdisproportionately larger than a number of spots presented in any otherinstance of the scope during the second campaign.

In some embodiments, the system may receive consumption data for thedigital media assets of the second campaign. The system may receive thisdata directly or indirectly from one or more of the video presentationdevices. If so, the system may analyze the received consumption data todetermine whether the received consumption data indicates that anexpected number of impressions of the digital media assets of the secondcampaign was achieved. If the expected number of impressions of thedigital media assets of the second campaign was not achieved, the systemmay automatically allocate one or more of the digital media assets toone or more additional digital programming files in the inventory inaccordance with the one or more parameters for presentation to audiencemembers via video presentation devices.

In some embodiments, the system may cause a display device to output aheatmap that includes various sectors of the display device. Each sectoris represented as a cell, and each cell presents a value that isassociated with inventory of a given scope. The system will select acolor for each of the cells based on a measure of the value of theinventory associated with that cell, and it will cause the displaydevice to output each of the sectors so that each cell is presented inin the cell's selected color.

In some embodiments, the system may cause a proposal that includesparameters of the second campaign to be presented to the campaignrequestor for review. The system may identify a response time withinwhich the campaign requestor must respond to the proposal. If thecampaign requestor positively responds to the proposal within theresponse time, the system will cause the proposal to be presented to asecond entity. If the campaign requestor rejects the proposal or doesnot positively respond to the proposal in the response time, then thesystem may either un-allocate the digital media assets for the secondcampaign from the identified digital programming files. In addition, ifthe campaign requestor so indicates, the system may return the campaignrequest for an additional optimization process.

In some embodiments, the system may receive, from the campaignrequestor, a selection of one or more constraints on attributes of atarget audience. The attributes can include, for example, demographicattributes, show attributes, network digital media service attributes,time attributes, behavioral attributes, geographic attributes, and/orsocial network attributes. If so, the system may use the receivedparameters and the received constraints on attributes to identify anaudience segment. Then, when performing the automatic allocation, thesystem may do so such that the digital media assets in aggregate will bepresented to at least a threshold number of impressions or uniqueimpressions within the audience segment. As an additional option, whenthe system receives an indication that an audience segment will be apremium target, it may use that indication as an additional parameter inthe automatic allocation.

In some embodiments, at least a subset of the digital media assets mayinclude dynamic content with a variable component that can be selectedat the time the second campaign is presented to audience members basedon one or more dynamic constraints. If so, then when automaticallyallocating the digital media assets for the second campaign to theidentified digital programming files, the system may determine whetherthe dynamic content of each of the digital media assets that has suchcontent satisfies the selected one or more parameters. It may alsoidentify a dynamic constraint of the identified digital programmingfiles and determine whether the digital media asset's dynamic contentsatisfies the identified dynamic constraint. It will then only allocatea digital media asset to an identified digital programming file if thedigital media asset's dynamic content satisfies the selected one or moreparameters and the identified dynamic constraint. Optionally, afterallocating to the second campaign any of the digital media assets havingdynamic content that satisfies the selected one or more parameters andthe identified dynamic constraint, the system may update (i.e.,re-perform) the automatic allocation for any remaining inventory toensure that the second campaign is still consistent with the allocationvalue and satisfies the one or more parameters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of certain elements of a system that may beused to manage the allocation of media assets to one or more mediadelivery services.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of allocating digitalmedia assets to programs in one or more media delivery services.

FIG. 3 illustrates examples of optimizing campaign requests and quoterequests according to various embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a list of campaign requests accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of user interface for buyer selectingsmoothness of a campaign according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of user interface for seller selectingunder-sell or over-sell of a campaign according to an embodiment, aswell as specifying what fraction of the inventory that exists (e.g., inany daypart) can be sold.

FIG. 7 illustrates detailed information about an optimized quoteaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a list of optimized campaign requestsand general information about the status of each request according to anembodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates detailed information about optimized campaigns atdifferent levels of granularity (network, daypart, and week) accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a heatmap that the system maygenerate.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram representing internal hardware that may beused to contain or implement the various computer processes and systemsdiscussed in this document.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As used in this document, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the”include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skillin the art. As used in this document, the term “comprising” means“including, but not limited to.”

As used in this document, the term “media delivery service” refers toany service that includes transmission hardware to deliver video oraudio programming to an audience in live or pre-recorded format.Examples include television (i.e. videos) delivered via any format,including but not limited to over-the-air broadcast televisiontransmission systems, cable television head end delivery systems, OTTstreaming television channels or streaming video services that areavailable via the Internet, digital video recorders (DVRs), cloud-basedDVRs, and other Internet video; radio transmission systems; and systemsfor delivering audio or video files over a digital communicationsnetwork such as systems for webcasting, datacasting, Internet videostreaming, Internet radio, podcasting and the like. This document mayuse the terms “video media delivery service” or “digital video deliveryservice” to refer to a system that delivers video programming, such asthe options described above (e.g., broadcast TV, cable TV and/or OTTservices).

As used in this document, document the term “digital programming file”refers to a digital file containing one or more units of audio and/orvisual media that a consumer may select for viewing via a media deliveryservice. Examples include files containing broadcast or cable televisionprograms (which a consumer may select by selecting the channel on whichthe program is broadcast), files containing on-demand video or audioprograms, podcasts, pay-per-view programs, and the like. A consumer“consumes” the files by listening to and/or viewing the media contentthat the digital programming file contains.

As used in this document, a “media asset” is a unit of non-user-selectedmedia that will be presented to consumers of a media delivery service(i.e., viewers and/or listeners) in association with a consumer-selectedprogram. A media asset will be stored in a non-transitory memory in theform of one or more digital media files. When the media delivery serviceis a broadcast, cable, or on-demand audio or video program deliveryservice, examples of media assets video or audio files that contain arecorded commercial, public service announcement, or other programmingfor which the service may receive payment from the media asset sponsor.In the context of a digital communications network, a media asset may bea particular page or part of a page of a website or other digital mediaasset.

As used in this document, a “temporal parameter” refers to a measurementor value of a time associated with a media asset distributed by a mediadelivery service. Examples of temporal parameters include a scheduledstart time, a scheduled end time, a day part, a program run time, a timewithin a program or advertising pod, such as a scheduled commercialbreak time, a position within a commercial break time, a frame countwithin a program, a position before or after an event in a program, andthe like.

As used in this document, a “campaign” is a set of media assets thatshare a common idea or theme, or which come from a common buyer.Commonly, although not necessarily, a campaign may be a set of mediaassets that contain commercials or other advertisements. A campaign canbe as specific as a collection of specific units, or it can be acollection of criteria for the association of media assets that satisfythe criteria. The media delivery service will the campaign to consumersalong with the media delivery service's other media assets. A campaignmay be presented on a single media service (such as a televisionnetwork) or multiple media delivery services (such as television, cable,streaming media, and/or web pages).

As used in this document, the term “media presentation device” means ahardware item or system containing a processing device and one or moreadditional hardware components for presenting the audio and/or visualcontent of a digital programming file to a consumer. The hardwarecomponents may include, for example, a display device, an audio speaker,a headphone port, and/or a transmitter containing near fieldcommunication hardware (such as Bluetooth hardware) configured totransmit the audio and/or visual content to a proximate display deviceand/or audio speaker. A “video presentation device” is a device having adisplay and hardware configured to present the content of streamingvideo, broadcast or cable video, or digital video files to users, suchas televisions, computing devices (e.g., desktop computers, laptopcomputers, tablets, smartphones), video gaming systems, and wearabledevices having electronic displays such as smartwatches and smarteyewear.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system that may be used to manage the delivery of acampaign in in a media delivery service. The system may include acampaign manager 101, which is a set of one or more processing devicesand one or more software programming modules that the processingdevice(s) execute to perform the functions of this description. Multiplemedia presentation devices such as smart televisions 111, set top boxes112 and/or computing devices 113 are in direct or indirect communicationwith the campaign manager 101 via one or more communication networks115. The media presentation devices receive and present programming frommedia assets to users via a display device, an audio speaker, or both.The media presentation devices also include hardware that tracksviewers' viewing activity at periodic time intervals, such as intervalsof one minute or less, to identify consumption statistics such as thetimes at which a consumer is consuming a program and associated mediaassets, as well as the, program and/or channels that the consumerconsumes (e.g., views). The system can later use this data to determineconsumption statistics for each media asset, such as a total number ofimpressions, a rate of impression over time, a number of impressionsduring a particular program or time period, and the like.

Any number of media delivery services may contain one or more mediaservers 120 that transmit audio and/or video programming files to themedia presentation devices via the network 115. The programming files,which may be stored in one or more programming storage facilities 123,may include standard programming along with media assets that are partof a campaign, such as advertisements or sponsored program segments. Themedia servers 120 may transmit the programming files in a streamingformat, so that the media presentation devices present the content ofthe programming files as the programming files are streamed by the mediaserver 120. The campaign manager also may have access to a data store ofavailable media assets 125 that are used in various campaigns. The mediapresentation devices also may include hardware that tracks viewers'viewing activity at periodic time intervals, such as intervals of oneminute or less, to identify consumption statistics such as thosedescribed above.

Optionally, the system may also include a traffic server 150 that servesas an intermediary between the media server 130 and other components ofthe system. The traffic server 150, when available, will receivescheduling data and generate the commands that cause the media server topresent the content of programming files to consumers at scheduledtimes. An optional business intelligence server (not shown in FIG. 1)may sit between the traffic server and media presentation devices, or atanother appropriate part of the system, to measure consumption data ofprogramming files and media assets.

The campaign manager 101 will store the data captured about whatprograms and media assets viewers consumed in a data storage facility121. The system may then use this data in various analytical tasks thatwill be described below. The campaign manager 101 may compute and storeup-to-date aggregate statistics on this data as well. For example, howmany households or devices in each population segment (such as NFLenthusiasts, viewers in the market for a car, or households with kids ina certain age range) watched a particular show or network in a giventime period.

The campaign manager may automatically store and update datarepresenting the available media assets and programming files that arepresented to viewers across multiple media presentation services andbroadcast weeks, and—via the historical viewing data capturing whatpeople watched—forecast demographic information about the audience foreach media asset. Optionally, at least some of the forecasting mayhappen before the media assets are assigned to campaigns. For example,the campaign manager may take historical averages (within a certain timewindow of the past, e.g., 3 months) of how many households or devices ina certain segment watched a certain network or show at a certain timewindow, and that gives the projected impressions for that time in thatsegment in that network or show. Seasonality can be handled, in a simpleexample, by only averaging historical data within the season. On a moresophisticated end, the campaign manager may use machine learning togeneralize across the training examples and/or across seasons.

By tracking people's viewing data, the system can track the deliverednumber of impressions to each committed campaign, can deliver analyticaldata to both the seller and the buyer of the campaign, and it can usethe analytical data in the allocation of additional media assets in thecampaign to future delivery slots in one or more media delivery systems.A delivery slot may be include a temporal parameter that comprises (i) a“spot,” which is a particular day and time; or (ii) a daypart, meaning atime range within a given day during which the media asset may bepresented. A delivery slot also may include a media delivery systemidentifier, which can include a particular television network, cablechannel, over-the-top service, or other media delivery service. Theidentifier may be a single service identifier, or an identifier of agroup of services to which the media asset may be allocated.

To allocate media assets of a campaign to one or more programming files,the campaign manager 101 may generate a scheduling file containing datarepresenting: (i) the media assets to be presented; and (ii) a deliveryslot (temporal parameter and media delivery system identifier). Thecampaign manager may send the scheduling file to the media server 120,which will select the media asset from its data store 125 and presentthe media asset to consumers in accordance with the instructions for thedelivery slot.

The system also may include one or more computing devices 130 containinga processor, computer-readable memory with programming instructions, anda user interface (such as a keyboard, touch screen, or other inputdevices) via which a user who is requesting a campaign (such as anadvertising buyer or seller) may enter parameters for a campaign. Thecomputing devices 130 may transmit this information to the campaignmanager 101 via one a direct connection or one or more communicationnetworks.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart describing a digital media asset allocationprocess. As described above, the system that implements the process willinclude a first data store containing a digital content files. Eachdigital content file corresponds to a digital media asset (such as avideo or audio advertisement). At least some of the files will includemetadata indicating one or more campaigns with which the digital contentfile's digital media asset is associated. A second data store containsof digital programming files, each of which corresponds to one or moreuser-selectable media programs (e.g., television programs, podcasts, andthe like).

A digital media server is configured to access the first data store andthe second data store and transmit the digital content files and thedigital programming to available media presentation devices. The systemalso includes a campaign manager in which a processor executesprogramming instructions that cause the campaign manager processor toreceive consumption data 201 for a first campaign. The consumption dataindicates the user-selectable media programs and digital media assetsthat audience members consumed in the first campaign. The system mayretrieve the consumption data from a memory, or receive the consumptiondata from a group of media presentation devices that presented theprograms to audience members, and/or from one or more programmingservers that sent the programs to the media presentation devices.

By way of example, if the media delivery system includes one or moretelevision networks, the user-selectable media programs may televisionprograms that a user may select by causing a media presentation deviceto select a channel or on-demand service corresponding to one or more ofthe television networks. The consumption data for each of theuser-selectable media programs and the digital media assets may includea number of impressions, as well as demographic information aboutaudience members who consumed the user-selectable media programs and thedigital media assets.

The system will also receive, from a media delivery service thatcorresponds to the digital media server, an inventory of digitalprogramming files, along with metadata corresponding to the digitalprogramming files in the inventory that will be available forpresentation to the media presentation devices at future times 202.

The system may then receive one or more parameters for a secondcampaign. For example, the system may receive an allocation value 203,which represents an under-allocation value, an over-allocation value, orboth an under-allocation value and an over-allocation value (i.e., arange around, or maximum deviation from, an expected value). Theallocation value indicates the extent to which a media program or groupof media programs may have digital media assets (e.g., advertisements)allocated to it in a number that exceeds, or is less than, an expectednumber. Optionally, the system may also receive an impression deliveryvalue 204 that represents a maximum amount by which an actual number ofimpressions delivered may deviate from an expected number of impressionsdelivered. The system also may receive one or more smoothnessconstraints 205, which will help ensure that digital media assets arenot unduly clustered together (or spaced too far apart) when allocatedto programs as described below. A smoothness constraint is a criterionthat the system will use to assess the smoothness of a number ofimpressions received over a time period, a number of spots presentedover a time period, or another time-based measure. The allocation value,impression delivery value and smoothness parameter(s) may be retrievedfrom a memory, received from a user input, defined or set as a defaultvalue, or otherwise received.

The campaign manager may also receive, from a campaign requestor, aselection of one or more additional parameters for a second campaign206. The campaign requestor may be an entity that is purchasing spots inwhich digital media assets may be inclusion in a campaign, a sellerrepresentative who seeks to have the system allocate spots or generate areport of what a campaign may comprise if sold to a buyer, a memorydevice or a system that contains the parameters, or another entity orsystem that provides the parameters to the campaign manager. Theparameters may include, for example, an expected number of impressions,demographic data of the desired audience members in the campaign, any ofthe parameters described above (e.g., smoothness, under- andover-allocation values, etc.), or other parameters.

The campaign manager may then identify a set of digital media assets forsecond campaign 207, analyze the consumption data and the metadata toidentify one or more digital programming files in the inventory to whichto allocate a group of the digital media assets for the second campaign208, and automatically allocate 209 the digital media assets for thesecond campaign to the identified digital programming files in theinventory in accordance with the one or more parameters for presentationto audience members via media presentation devices in the secondcampaign so that the allocation satisfies the allocation value (i.e., itdoes not exceed an maximum (over-allocation value) or go under a minimum(allocation value). Allocation may include generating a set of commandsthat are configured to cause the digital media server to present eachallocated digital media asset during a media program that corresponds tothe identified digital programming file. Once digital media assets areallocated to media programs, the digital media server may then present215 the media programs with the digital media assets to one or moremedia presentation devices for consumption by audience members.

Optionally, if the first campaign is not yet complete, the system alsomay analyze the consumption data and the metadata to identify one ormore additional programming files and future times to which to allocateadditional digital media assets corresponding to a remainder of thefirst campaign 210. If so, it may automatically select a group of theadditional digital media assets and allocate the selected additionaldigital media assets to the identified additional programming files 211at future times in accordance with the one or more parameters forpresentation to audience members as the remainder of the first campaign.

If the system received an impression delivery value, then whenperforming the allocation the system may do so in a manner that ensuresthat the number of impressions delivered in the second campaign will bepresented will not deviate from the expected number of impressionsdelivered by more than the impression delivery value.

If the system received a smoothness constraint, then when allocating itmay identify a number of expected impressions for the second campaignduring a time interval, and then allocate the digital media files in thesecond campaign to the identified one or more digital programming filesso that the number of impressions associated with each instance of thetime interval during the second campaign remains within a determinedrange of the number of expected impressions. The system may perform theidentification by receiving the expected impression values from a uservia a user interface, by retrieving them from a memory device, or bydetermining it using any suitable algorithm based on parameters such asthe smoothness criterion. A smoothness criterion also may require thatthe system allocate no more than a maximum number of spots to a certainnetwork or program in a given time period (such as daypart), no lessthan a minimum number of spots to the certain network or program in agiven time period, or both. More generally, the system's smoothnessconstraints can be expressed as specifying a minimum and/or a maximumfor a given scope, and the minimum and maximum can be defined in termsof the number of spots or in terms of the number of impressions (in agiven segment or overall). A scope will be a time interval, which couldbe a specific time, a daypart, a timespan of one or more programs, or atimespan of a campaign. Alternatively, a scope can be a time interval ina combination with one or more digital media service (e.g., a timeinterval plus a particular network or group of networks). In this way,the smoothness constraint helps ensure that the presentation of spotsover a particular time, or on one or more particular networks over aparticular time, is smooth.

In some embodiments, the campaign manager processor may analyze theconsumption data and the metadata to identify a time at which to assigneach of digital media assets for the second campaign in accordance withthe one or more parameters. If so, then when automatically allocatingdigital media assets for the second campaign to the identified digitalprogramming files in the inventory, the system may do so that and ensurethat each of the digital media assets for the second campaign will bepresented to audience members at the digital media asset's assignedtime. An “assigned time” may be a clock time (i.e., that as measured bya clock in accordance with an applicable time zone), or it may be ameasurement of relative time, such as an amount of time after the startof the program, or a percentage of total time in a program (and a spotin the program that corresponds to that value added on after the start,or it may be a range of times within which the digital media asset maybe presented, such as a daypart, a relative amount of a total commercialbreak, and the like.

Optionally, the system may perform a batch optimization process in whichit allocates digital media assets for multiple campaigns at the sametime. If so, then recall that above the system considered a firstcampaign and a second campaign. In a batch optimization process, thesystem may also identify a number of expected impressions for at leastone additional campaign, and then when identifying the set of digitalprogramming files to which the digital media files in the secondcampaign will be allocated, it may do so such that the number of digitalmedia files allocated to each of the digital programming files in theset remains within the allocation value.

If the system allocates digital media assets to multiple campaigns, itmay present at least a subset of the multiple campaigns to a user via auser interface for review. The user interface will include a prompt thatenables the user to express acceptance or non-acceptance of eachcampaign. If the system receives a user acceptance of a campaign, thesystem will cause the campaign to be implemented. A non-acceptance maybe a rejection or a request for modification or re-allocation. If thesystem receives a rejection of the campaign, the system will release thedigital programming files back to the inventory for use in othercampaigns. If the system receives a request for modification orre-allocation, the system may re-perform the allocation process with oneor more different parameters that the system receives from the user viathe user interface. Optionally, the system may only implement a campaignafter receiving an expression of acceptance from the user.

In addition, in some embodiments the system may decide to reject some ofthe campaign requests, in which case it will not allocate inventory tothem. For example, the system may determine whether any campaign willconflict with the received parameters of the campaign (e.g.,constraints, or constraints on attributes) and if so it may reject thatcampaign. The system also may determine whether any candidate campaignwill be less profitable than a different campaign with which thecandidate campaign's identified digital programming files in theinventory could instead be used. The system may perform itsprofitability analysis by subtracting the cost of a campaign (whichcould be zero, or which could be an actual cost considering the cost ofproduction, transmission, overhead, etc.) from the revenue that themedia delivery service will receive from the campaign. The system maythen un-allocate the digital media assets from the identified digitalprogramming files (which may involve retracting the allocation, or whichmay involve not completing the allocation) for any campaign that thesystem has rejected so that the inventory can be used with a differentcampaign.

Additional optimization methods may include those described in U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0297400, published Oct. 2, 2014,and titled “Method and System for Media Advertising Campaign Sales andAllocation,” the disclosure of which is fully incorporated into thisdocument by reference.

Optionally, the system may also receive consumption data for the digitalmedia assets of the second campaign from one or more of the mediapresentation devices 220. The system may receive this informationdirectly from the devices, from a memory, or from one or moreintermediary devices or systems. The system will analyze the receivedconsumption data to determine whether the received consumption dataindicates that an expected number of impressions of the digital mediaassets of the second campaign were achieved. If the expected number ofimpressions of the digital media assets of the second campaign were notachieved, the system may automatically allocate one or more of thedigital media assets to one or more additional digital programming filesin the inventory in accordance with the one or more parameters forpresentation to audience members via media presentation devices in athird campaign 221.

The automated allocation of campaign assets is now further explained.With reference to FIG. 3, the system may receive one or more campaignrequests 301. Additionally, the system may receive additional controlrules and/or models for optimization 302. Then, the system may optimizethe campaign requests 303 and output the results to the user (i.e., thebuyer or seller of the campaign) for approval 304. Once the userapproves the optimized campaign requests, the system may output theresults to the other entity (e.g., the buyer if the user is a seller)for approval 305. Once the buyer (or other user approves the optimizedcampaign request, the allocation is complete. If the buyer (or otheruser) rejects the optimized request, the buyer (or other user) mayre-send a new campaign request. In one embodiment, the system may alsoallow a user to submit a quote request before sending formal campaignrequests. The system may receive a quote request 311 from a user andadditional control rules or models 312, if applicable, and optimize thequote request 313 and output the result to the user 314. The optimizedquote request may give the user a feel for the behavior of the systemand formulate a subsequent campaign request that includes reasonableconstraints or realistic bids.

Campaign/quote request: The system may allow a user (e.g., a buyer or aseller acting on behalf of a buyer) to define a campaign request orquote request. A campaign request may provide information about thebuyer's preferences and constraints to the seller, for example, to allowthe seller to allocate inventory to the buyer at a certain price. Aquote request may allow a buyer to query the system to get an estimateon how much budget would be required to achieve a certain impressiongoal, or how many impressions are deliverable given a certain budget.For example, with reference to FIG. 4, both campaign requests and quoterequests can include high-level information like a human-readabledescription and information about the advertiser 401 and agency 402associated with the quote. Requests may express a start date and enddate (hereafter referred to as the campaign's flight 405), possibly witha start time and end time as well. Requests may also target a specificaudience demographic segment 403. The system may determine whether arequest is for a campaign or a quote by the presence of both a budget404 and desired number of impressions 406 (in the case of a campaignrequest) or the absence of one but not both of those data points (in thecase of a campaign request).

Campaign Optimization:

After receiving a campaign request, the system may perform anoptimization process that will allocate inventory (i.e., spots inprogramming to which digital media assets may be assigned) from the setof available inventory to the campaign (possibly subtracting outinventory used by previously accepted campaigns, and obeying anyadditional business rules provided by the seller). In one embodiment,the system may choose to optimize individual campaigns separately, whereonly one campaign is considered at a time, assuming all other campaignsdo not exist. In another embodiment, the system may bundle quoterequests into a batch optimization, and optimizes both the existingcampaign requests and quotes together. In doing so, the system may allowmultiple campaign requests (from the same buyer or different buyers) tobuild up, and then be optimized in a batch. In this batch optimization,campaigns may compete against each other for available inventory; evencampaigns that prefer different segments may compete for the sameinventory because spots have audiences that may belong in part tomultiple segments.

The batch optimization, by simultaneously determining the allocation ofavailable inventory to all campaigns, may increase or maximize aperformance metric associated with the allocation that can either be theoverall revenue, or the overall surplus revenue, which is defined by thetotal revenue minus the value of all allocated spots at a base price(such as the spot rate). The system will respect expressed preferencesand constraints from both the buyer and the seller side, such as (1) thenumber of spots allocated to all campaigns in a network-daypart-weekcannot exceed the available number of spots for that combination; (2)the number of spots allocated in a network-daypart-week to anyparticular campaign cannot exceed a maximum allowance; (3) the totalcharge of all spots allocated to each campaign cannot exceed the budgetof that campaign; (4) the total number of planned impressions for eachcampaign must be exactly the requested goal impressions (or within aband around the goal impressions if the seller allows for over- and/orunder-allocation); (5) if a campaign lasts for more than one period(e.g., week), a smoothness constraint that ensures that the plannednumber of impressions in each period (e.g., week) must fall between aminimum and a maximum fraction of the goal impressions. The optimizationcan be solved with various existing or later developed algorithms suchas the greedy algorithm, genetic algorithm, tree search or integerprogramming, simulated annealing, local search, or tabu search and soon.

Alternatively and/or additionally, the system may employ otherconstraints. As a non-limiting example, several constraints are listedbelow.

-   -   Various forms of targeting by network orders and audience        orders.    -   Whenever an interconnect network order is given a spot, it must        get a spot at the same exact time in all zones of the        interconnect.    -   Whenever an interconnect audience order is satisfied, it must        get at least the number of impressions that it requested for        each of the zones of the interconnect.    -   Marketing orders must be satisfied despite contributing zero        revenue.    -   Separation A: advertisers from the same product category or        industry cannot be allocated to the same break.    -   Separation B: the same advertiser cannot be allocated to the        same break multiple times.    -   Separation C: the same advertisement (or any one from a set of        advertisements) cannot be allocated to the same break multiple        times.    -   Separation A′: advertisers from the same product category or        industry cannot be allocated to the same break back to back.    -   Separation B′: the same advertiser cannot be allocated to the        same break back to back.    -   Separation C′: the same advertisement (or any one from a set of        advertisements) cannot be allocated to the same break back to        back.    -   Separation constraints can also be defined in terms of how much        time has to pass between two ads from the same advertiser, the        same product category or industry, or between two showings of        the same ad.    -   Super-zone orders: some orders want a single network in multiple        zones.    -   Super-network/orbit orders: some orders want multiple networks        in a single zone.    -   Each order has to be fully satisfied to obtain any revenue from        it.

As defined above, the batch optimization might sell some spots below therate card price (also known as spot rate) because that may enable ahighly profitable campaign to be constructed. This is because in thesecombinatorial markets, the side constraints tie the different spotstogether, so one cannot simply remove from the campaign a spot whosecost per mille (CPM) price is below the rate card price for the segmentthat the campaign targets. This can be undesirable for many reasons, forexample, because the downstream execution systems (traffic systems)typically do not understand package execution but rather execution ofindividual spots. Therefore, alternatively and/or additionally, thesystem may adjust the prices of the spots in a campaign so that somespots essentially “subsidize” other spots so that each spot's priceexceeds (or at least matches) the spot rate. Sometimes suchsubsidization is undesirable—e.g., because then it may not be clear howto fix execution failures of certain spots. To avoid this, in oneembodiment, the system includes the constraints in the optimization thateach spot sells (without subsidy) at the higher of its CPM price and itsspot price.

The optimization may vary in the level of granularity. For example, theoutput can be a detailed schedule down to the spot level, or it can be ahigher-level allocation specification, such as allocation at the levelof avails or at the pods, that is, how many units (e.g., spots in thecase of linear TV) are allocated to each avail or pod, respectively. Anavail is a (network, daypart, week)-combination, but coarser units toallocate into can also be used, e.g., networks, dayparts, or weeks, orcombinations of two of them.

Alternatively and/or additionally, the system may allow multiple salesforces to sell into the same inventory at different levels ofgranularity, e.g., interconnect-level sales and zone-level sales, aswell as multiple national and local sales. The optimizer (i.e., one ormore hardware and software components that perform the optimizationprocess) may decide dynamically what inventory gets allocated tointerconnect-level campaigns and which slots to zone-level campaigns ina way that maximizes profit Similarly, the system may dynamically decidewhat inventory gets allocated for national versus local. This can alsosupport third-party remnant sellers.

Input and control to optimization: The system may allow various inputsand campaign controls, whether buyer or seller provided or built-in inthe system, in the optimization process. For example, the buyer canselect which seller-defined audience segment or segments the buyer wantsto target, that is, which impressions count toward that buyer'scampaign. As another example, the system may provide attribute targetingthat, instead of seller predefining a buyable segment, allows a buyer(or agency or seller's account executive working on the buyer's behalf)to specify substitutes of what various specific inventory pieces couldbe used to satisfy his campaign request. In one embodiment, this is doneby selecting allowable values for some of the attributes, and onlyimpressions that have a value among those allowable values for all thoseattributes are counted toward the campaign. In one embodiment, thesubstitutes do not have to be perfect; some inventory can be morevaluable than other inventory to that buyer. For example, the system mayprovide premium targeting, where the bidder is willing to pay more for acertain subsegments of the hard targeting segment. If so, the system mayenable a user to identify additional constraints on attributes of thetarget audience (e.g., the audience must include a certain number orpercentage of females having an income above a threshold level). Thesystem may consider these constraints on attributes, and it may givepreference to the constraints on attributes when performing theoptimization. These constraints on attributes are then fed to theallocation optimizer, whose output can thus be different simply becauseprofit-maximization in this new setting may lead to a differentallocation.

In some embodiments, the parameters associated with a particularaudience segment may be saved to memory as a template file. In this way,a user can select an audience segment by template instead of having todefine it from scratch using constraints or attributes every time.

The system may also allow substitution information to be come from thesell-side. For example, the system may receive from a seller a model asto what inventory segments are (possibly imperfect in terms of value)substitutes (overall or for certain subpopulations of buyers, or to aspecific buyer). The system can use this information to broaden thebuyer's campaign request so a larger set of campaigns could be used tosatisfy the request. Furthermore, the optimization may use value-basedimperfect-substitution information to specifically determine how much ofthe substituted-in inventory needs to be used.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may allow a buyer tospecify in the campaign request other control models or rules, such asvarious forms of smoothness, frequency, timing, exclusivity, and podplacement constraints and preferences. For example, with reference toFIG. 5, a user may use a user interface to specify a smoothnesscriterion 501 which is a value or a range of values (e.g., between 80%and 100%) that will to ensure that the planned number of impressions ina flight duration fall between the minimum and a maximum percentages ofthe goal impressions, or percentage or number of spot impressions over atime period or a program. Smoothness helps to ensure that all (or adisproportionately large number of) the impressions or spots do notoccur in a small time window of a campaign.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may also allow a seller tospecify smoothness preferences, which only allows allocation ofinventory to campaign requests if that allocation spreads the inventoryout across different time periods or within particular programs in aseller-defined “smooth” way. For example, for campaign requests withflight durations between 3 and 10 weeks, the seller may constrainfeasible allocations to only those that allocate per week to thatcampaign at least 5% and at most 40% of the total number of impressionswon by a campaign.

In one embodiment, the smoothness desideratum can be hard or soft in thesystem. A smoothness control is called hard if it must be obeyed. If thesmoothness is expressed as a preference (possibly associated with aprice at the CPM level or an overall price that a buyer is willing topay if that preference is honored) that the system can override in favorof other rules or criteria having a higher priority, then it is calledsoft. Smoothness can also be expressed at different time scales orturned on and off based on, for example, seasonality (e.g., allow alarger number of spots to be sold in the weeks leading up to Christmas)or one-off events (e.g., allow many spots to be sold near the SuperBowl). In another example, the smoothness preference may specify payingmore for spots that are for times within two weeks before Valentines, orrun week on—week off throughout the campaign flight. In one embodiment,smoothness can be expressed as a hard or soft constraint across otherdimensions than time, such as across networks, dayparts, demographics,media types, etc.

In one aspect of campaign control, because inventory forecasts areestimates and not reality, the system may provide to the seller theability to under- or over-sell its inventory at a variety of levels(e.g., per-avail, overall), such as the user interface 601 shown in FIG.6, which allows the seller to specify what percentage of the inventory(e.g., in any avail) can be sold. This percentage can be less than,equal to, or more than 100%. The system may use this under- orover-selling as a hedge against future uncertainty in audiencecomposition or size. Allowing oversell may have the effect in whicheverything sells, but runs an increased risk that makegoods are needed.Capping the amount of sell to less than 100% (e.g., in each avail) mayreduce the risk of needing to do makegoods but runs the risk that someof the inventory does not get sold. Alternatively and/or additionally,the system may allow a seller to set under- and over-allocation limitsfor campaigns in the context of that campaign's budget and/or itsdesired number of expected impressions. Practically, when it may beimpossible to exactly fulfill a campaign's request, this under- andover-fulfillment of a request's parameters is typically necessary.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may provide preferentialtreatment or priority of buyers by dividing buyers into differentclasses. The optimizer may treat buyers in different classespreferentially in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to: (1)by activating or deactivating expressiveness constructs for the use by abuyer during the campaign request or quote request creation process, (2)by giving preference to a buyer in tie-breaking situations over buyersof a lower class, (3) by giving a buyer access to subsets or supersetsof inventory, (4) by optimizing, for example, in a separate batch abuyer's requests with similarly-classed buyers' campaign requests and/orquote requests, possibly before or after other batches of campaignrequests and/or quote requests, and (5) by activating or deactivating abuyer's ability to submit quote requests of different types or byincreasing or decreasing the number of quote requests a buyer is allowedto be submitted (thereby limiting the “fishing” that can be done bybuyers to probe the system for underpriced inventory).

In one embodiment, the system may give a premium class of buyers theability to express exclusivity rights over buyers of the same ordifferent classes. For example, a very large buyer with a long historywith the system—a premium buyer—could request that any campaign from acompetitor not be allocated spots within the same pod, show, market,network, daypart, etc. Alternatively and/or additionally, when a buyermay only wish for at most one (or exactly one) of his campaign requeststo be accepted, the system may allow a buyer to submit multipleexclusive campaign requests to the optimizer, and the optimizer willallow only at most one of those campaigns to win any spot. Thispreference can be expressed via an exclusive-or (XOR) construct, whichstates that either one or another campaign request, but not both, canreceive a spot. In one embodiment, the system may allow multipleexclusive campaign requests from the same buyer to compete with othercampaign requests from that buyer that are not under an XOR construct orcampaign requests from other buyers in the batch.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may allow a special“marketing campaign,” i.e. the seller's own and its partners'promotional campaigns that must be fully satisfied despite no revenueoffering. This enables advertisement operations to deliver to marketingdepartments what is promised. This can also be expressed from animpressions perspective, that is, guaranteed number (or percentage) ofimpressions against any combination of targeting attributes.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may allow certain ordersto be prioritized over others. The system can handle priorities inmultiple ways, depending on the preferences of the customer. Forexample, the system may give Must Air (MA) orders higher priority overShould Air (SA) orders, which in turn can be prioritized over Can Shift(CS) orders.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may provide a “what-if”analysis tool that allows user to explore optimization results undervarious different hypotheticals based on the inputs (such asconstraints, preferences, campaign requests, etc.). By automaticallyexploring relaxations of various campaign controls, the optimizer canquantify the effect on the overall objective and allocation compositionof the user-imposed campaign controls. For example, a user might wish toenforce a maximum of 95% of the inventory to be sold by the optimizer(to hedge against uncertainty in inventory or impressions and thusminimize future makegoods to buyers with failed campaigns), and theoptimizer could automatically quantify the loss in revenue compared toselling 100% of the inventory by relaxing this campaign control. Similarrelaxations or restrictions on any numeric or logical rule imposed bythe seller can be performed by the optimizer to quantify theconstraint's effect on overall profit or revenue or the composition ofthe overall allocation (who wins what, etc.). The results of “what-if”analysis can be displayed to the user in a graphical user interface.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may also provide variousforms of fairness constraints and/or preferences. In one embodiment, acampaign control or rule may require that a winning campaign getsroughly even spread of impressions across the different subsegments ofthe target segment, to avoid the “cream-skimming problem.” For example,assume that buyer A wins impressions in the “gender=male” segment, andbuyer B wins impressions in the (“gender=male” AND “income >$100k”)segment. Without the extra constraints, buyer B could skim thehigh-income males, leaving buyer A with the low-income males, which isnot intended by buyer A in his campaign request offer. Now with these“even spread of impressions” constraints, buyer A would get a reasonablespread of impression across both high- and low-income males.

In some embodiments, the system may allow the buyer or seller toidentify one or more audience segments (e.g., sets of audience membersdefined by common age ranges, sex ranges, geographic locations, income,or other demographic criteria, or based on other criteria such astemporal, behavioral, or geographic criteria, social networkconnectivity, recorded actions, or other criteria), and perform theallocation so that media assets are presented to at least a thresholdnumber of audience members who are within a specified segment.

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may also use otherconstraint variations. While typically ads of different advertisers fromthe same product category are not to be placed in the same break due tothe separation constraints, it is quite common to see multiple creativesfrom one advertiser being shown in a break, which may lead toundesirable results. In a non-limiting example, the system may support aconstraint that some, or all, orders be precluded from having multipleads from one advertiser in one break, thus solve the above mentionedproblem. In another non-limiting example, the system may support an“interconnect-supernetwork hybrid” type contract. They are allinterconnect (IC) orders, but each of them requests multiple zones(which are normal) and multiple networks.

In another aspect of campaign control, the system may have access to atleast some digital media assets that include dynamic content withvariable components that can be selected at the time the campaign ispresented to audience members based on one or more dynamic constraintsor preferences (such as which ad, in isolation, would be most valuableto show). For example, the dynamic content may include content that canbe changed at the time of presentation, or groups of contentalternatives that may be selected at the time of presentation. Thedynamic content may be associated with metadata, and the system mayselect one or more of the variable components dynamic content forpresentation if it has metadata that corresponds to the dynamicconstraint. The system may not include dynamic content (or individualvariable components of the dynamic content) if its metadata conflictswith or does not correspond to the dynamic constraint. The dynamicconstraint may be determined at the time of presentation based on userinput into the system or based on metadata associated with theprogramming being presented. For example, a dynamic constraint for achildren's program may require that the dynamic content have metadataindicating that it is appropriate for children to view. As anotherexample, the system may use dynamic content of a media program (e.g., asports game or news show) to dynamically decide which digital mediaasset to plan present with the media program in a way that honors notonly content-based constraints (such as no adult ads in children's'shows) but also campaign level constraints (e.g., smoothness andnon-concentration) or even allocation-level constraints (e.g., theallocation can have at most or at least k advertisers). In oneembodiment, this can be done by checking whether the constraints wouldstill be satisfied if a dynamically-selected spot were shown. In a morecomplex embodiment, could the system may re-optimize all, or part, ofthe future allocation so as to make the dynamically-selected digitalmedia asset insertable while satisfying all the constraints, andpossibly at the same time optimizing the rest of the campaign (e.g., forprofit) in light of the decision of what dynamically-inserted ad wasinserted (which may have changed what the optimal—e.g.,profit-maximizing—way to fill the rest of the campaign is).

In one aspect of campaign control, the system may use various pricingmodels in optimization, such as spot rate and CPM. When inventory issold manually on a per-spot or campaign basis by the seller toadvertisers or agencies acting on behalf of advertisers, associated witheach spot can be a spot rate, which is determined offline by the sellerand is used to set the price for a spot, regardless of the applicabilityof that spot's audience to the buyer's preferences. An alternatemeasurement, cost per mille (CPM), associates a price with each set ofone thousand viewers within a desired segment who view a creative.

The following example illustrates a difference between these two pricingmethods. A spot is watched by 4000 males and 6000 females for a totalaudience of 10,000; its spot rate is $50.00, the CPM for the malesegment is $5.00, and the CPM for the female segment is $10.00. If acampaign expressed interest in the male segment, it would be charged$50.00 for the allocation of that spot at spot rate prices, or $20.00under CPM pricing. Similarly, if it were interested in the femalesegment, it would also be charged $50.00 for the allocation of that spotat spot rate prices, or $60.00 under CPM pricing. Under CPM pricing, theformer campaign is charged less than the latter campaign because thespot is less valuable to the former campaign than the latter; under spotrate pricing, this level of granularity is not available and bothcampaigns (and any other campaign) are charged the same amount for thatspot. Our media optimization can use the higher of the spot rate and CPMpricing to more efficiently monetize the available inventory.Furthermore, it considers the entire inventory at once as opposed to thecurrent status quo of selling spot-by-spot.

Quote Request and Quote Optimization:

Returning to FIG. 3, in one embodiment, the system may optimize quoterequests 312 independently from the batch optimization of campaignrequest 303. The quote request optimization may operate similar tocampaign request optimization but with less input information. The quoteoptimization will provide the buyer some preliminary optimizationresults (based on limited input information), such as via the userinterface 701 shown in FIG. 7, which may guide the buyer to subsequentlysubmit a reasonable and realistic campaign request. In one embodiment, aquote request may specify an impression goal, but without a budget, thenthe system may return a quote for the minimum budget required to achievethat expected number of impressions, although this estimated budgetmight change between the quote request's submission and any future pointin time. In optimizing a quote request that specifies an impression goalwithout a budget, the optimizer may drop constraint (3) aforementioned,i.e. the optimizer may not take into account the total charge of allspots allocated to each campaign.

In another embodiment, a quote request may specify a budget only. Inoptimizing such quote request, the optimization may ignore constraint(4) aforementioned, i.e. the optimization may not take into account thetotal number of planned impressions for each campaign being exactly therequested goal impressions (or within a band around the goal impressionsif the seller allows for over- and/or under-allocation). The optimizermay also modify constraint (5) aforementioned in the following way: ifthe flight of the quote is longer than one week, the planned number ofimpressions in each week must fall between a minimum and a maximumfraction of the planned impressions rather than the goal impressions(which is not specified in this type of quote). As the result ofoptimization, the system may return the maximum number of impressions(within the quote's segment and budget) buyable in the system at thetime of submission. This buyable is different from simply availablebecause it takes profit optimization as the basis to decide what toquote, not just offering all available inventory. This number can changebetween the quote request's submission and its possible resubmission asa full campaign request due to fluctuations in inventory from acceptingother new campaigns requests, or via different business rules expressedby the seller.

Seller and Buyer Approval and Makegoods:

Returning to FIG. 3, in one embodiment, after receiving submittedcampaign requests and optimizing them, the system may present theoptimized results as campaign proposals to the seller, buyer or anotherentity for approval 304. This may happen by direct presentation ofparameters of the campaign proposal on a display device, or indirectpresentation by transmitting parameters of the campaign proposal as oneor more electronic data files to an electronic device of the seller.After the entity approves the campaign proposal by selecting a prompt onthe user interface or sending a message in reply to the transmittedmessage, the system may present the campaign proposal to the a secondentity (i.e., the seller if the first entity was the buyer, or the buyerif the first entity was the seller) for approval 305. In someembodiments, either or both of the first or the second entity may have acertain period of time to respond to the proposal. The system may setthe length of time or allow a user to set the time period. If the timeperiod passes without a response from the entity to whom the proposal ispresented, or if the entity rejects the proposal or returns it to thesystem for re-allocation within the time period, the entity is no longercommitted to this proposal (and the buyer will need to submit a newcampaign request if he still wants such a campaign). The system wouldthen also un-allocate the plurality of digital media assets for thesecond campaign from the identified digital programming files, thusfreeing up the digital programming files in the inventory so that otherdigital media assets may be allocated to them.

With reference to FIG. 8, the system may display a list of campaignproposals 801-805 that form a feasible, legal (i.e., consistent withapplicable parameters and constraint) allocation of inventory tocampaigns. The system may further display the campaign proposals indetail, such as shown in FIG. 9, with various details including, but notlimited to, how many spots were won at what price for each network,daypart, and week. Returning to FIG. 8, for each of the campaignproposals, the system may display action inputs (e.g., buttons or otheruser-selectable prompts) to prompt the seller to select one of the threeactions: approve 810, reject 812, or resubmit 811. If the sellerapproves a campaign proposal, then the system will treat it as acampaign and block the spots won by the campaign from being allocated tofuture campaigns, campaign requests, or quote requests. Alternatively,the system may present an offer to the buyer who can accept within atime frame or reject the offer (in which case the inventory is freed forlater sales). If the seller rejects the campaign proposal, then thesystem may return the spots won to the pool of available spots to beallocated to future campaigns or requests. If the seller resubmits theproposal, then the system will queue it to the pre-optimization queue asa new campaign request, and will optimize it either individually or in abatch with other requests in the future.

If there are any outstanding campaign proposals that have not beenapproved, rejected, or resubmitted by the seller, in one embodiment ofthe system, the optimizer will not allow new campaign requests to beoptimized but will allow new quote requests of either type to beoptimized, this is because campaign requests will consume inventorywhile quote requests do not. In one embodiment, the system may optimizequotes in parallel with campaign requests, or automatically parallelizethe optimization of multiple simultaneous quote requests. They systemmay perform this parallel optimization of campaign requests usingmultiple cores but working on one optimization problem. Or, thisoptimization can be split into multiple silos to make solving faster,but thereby compromising optimality. Furthermore, multiple users couldrun optimizations in parallel (for example, to better understand themarket).

Alternatively and/or additionally, rather than having the seller tocommit to a campaign request first, the system may allow the buyer tocommit to the set of requirements entered into a campaign request. Underthis circumstance, the buyer agrees to buy any campaign as long as theexpressed requirements are met by the campaign proposed by the platform(which may be subject to the seller's approval).

Alternatively and/or additionally, the system may reject a campaignrequest in the optimization, and automatically return to the buyerpossible reasons for its rejection and suggestions on changing thecampaign request. In one embodiment, the system may automaticallyre-submit the rejected campaign as either or both quote types toidentify conflicts in the campaign's expressed requirements.

After the flight of the campaign is over, the platform automaticallychecks, based on viewing data captured, how many impressions areactually delivered to each campaign. The system may automatically issuemakegoods to, or receive manually negotiated or entered makegoods to beissued to, buyers whose campaigns have under-delivered. Makegoods caneither be in the form of future impressions, monetary value (e.g., acredit in the system or cryptocurrency), or virtual monetary value thatcan be used in the platform. The system may allow the buyer, in makingfuture campaign requests, to use any type of these credits, or acombination of them, to pay for a future campaign partially or entirely.

The inventory that is being sold can be all from one seller, or can be acombination of inventory from multiple sellers. The system may allow asingle campaign to run across multiple sellers. The system may also notrequire that a single seller include its entire inventory to be sold inthe system. Furthermore, the system may support a hybrid of manual andprogrammatic sales into the same inventory, as described in theoptimization problem earlier in this document.

Visualization tools: In one embodiment, the system may providevisualization tools in the form of a heatmap for past and forecastedaudience composition, which is split over various dimensions likenetwork, daypart, week, and segment. In a non-limiting example, asillustrated by FIG. 10, the heatmap 1001 may include various sectors ofa display in which different cells 1002 a . . . 1002 n display differentvalues associated with scopes of inventory are displayed in differentcolors depending on whether or not the value exceed various definedthresholds, including, but not limited to: (1) the raw number ofimpressions per dimension per spot (as shown in the figures), (2) thenumber of impressions of a certain segment type in a spot in a dimensionrelative to the total number of impressions per spot in a dimension, (3)options 1 or 2 visualized not overall but based on what inventory isstill available (unsold), (4) the cost of a spot in a dimension underCPM pricing (described below) relative to the cost under spot rate(described below), and (5) any of the previously listed views on aper-campaign basis instead of across all campaigns or all inventory ingeneral. The thresholds in each cell may vary, or they may be consistentacross cells that present values for the same or related parameters.

Tracking and viewer demographics:

The system may use multiple technical components (including trackingdevices included with media presentation hardware, in media servers, orin communication systems between the two that track consumers' habits atperiodic time intervals (e.g., television viewers' viewing habits duringparticular programs or time periods, Internet-based tracking of users'browsing habits for display advertising, specialized trafficking systemsin place at multi-service operators (MSOs), and cloud-based storagesystem and cloud-based virtual machines) to achieve to allow automationbetween the buy-side and sell-side, and to allow enhancedexpressiveness.

In one embodiment, the system may automatically store data that captureswhat people watch on media device(s). In case of linear TV, this can bedone via set-top boxes, specialized hardware devices that track userinteractions. The system may compute and store up-to-date aggregatestatistics on this data as well. For example, the system mayautomatically store and update data representing the availableadvertising inventory across multiple networks and broadcast weeks,and—via the historical viewing data capturing what peoplewatched—forecast demographic information about the audience for each ofspot in this inventory. By tracking people's viewing data, the systemcan track the delivered number of impressions to each committedcampaign, and can deliver the analytical data to both the seller and thebuyer of the campaign.

In one embodiment, the system may assign viewers to one or morecategories, called segments, based on their household or individualattributes (e.g., salary, interests, likely future large purchases likea house or car, ethnicity, location, family composition, and theseattributes can include social attributes, social media attributes,behavioral attributes, and any other kinds of attributes). Thesesegments can be defined by the seller and can represent any measurableaspect of a viewer or household. The system may collect and use actualdemographic audience information for each of these segments fromhistorical information. Similarly, the system may forecast the audiencedemographics on a per-segment basis. FIG. 11 depicts an example ofinternal hardware that may be included in any of the electroniccomponents of the system, an electronic device, or a remote server. Anelectrical bus 1100 serves as an information highway interconnecting theother illustrated components of the hardware. Processor 1105 is acentral processing device of the system, i.e., a computer hardwareprocessor configured to perform calculations and logic operationsrequired to execute programming instructions. As used in this documentand in the claims, the terms “processor” and “processing device” mayrefer to a single processor or any number of processors in a set ofprocessors. Read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flashmemory, hard drives and other devices capable of storing electronic dataconstitute examples of memory devices 1110. When this document usesterms such as “memory” or “data store”, it intends to refer to one ormore such devices containing non-transitory storage media. A memorydevice may include a single device or a collection of devices acrosswhich data and/or instructions are stored.

An optional display interface 1130 may permit information from the bus1100 to be displayed on a display device 1135 in visual, graphic oralphanumeric format. An audio interface and audio output (such as aspeaker) also may be provided. Communication with external devices mayoccur using various communication devices 1140 such as a transmitterand/or receiver, antenna, an RFID tag and/or short-range or near-fieldcommunication circuitry. A communication device 1140 may be attached toa communications network, such as the Internet, a local area network ora cellular telephone data network.

The hardware may also include a user interface sensor 1145 that allowsfor receipt of data from input devices 1150 such as a keyboard, a mouse,a joystick, a touchscreen, a remote control, a pointing device, a videoinput device and/or an audio input device. Data also may be receivedfrom a video capturing device 1120. The input devices and/or displaydevice may serve as a user interface to receive input from users, suchas criteria and parameters that are used in the allocation process.Example user interfaces (e.g. touch-sensitive display devices, ordisplay devices in combination with other input devices) are shown inthe various figures.

Any or all of the components described above may be integrated with, orin communication with, ore or more additional systems. For example, thesystem may include or be in communication with digital video insertionequipment, a traffic and billing system (e.g., those commerciallyavailable as the Eclipse™, Novar™, or WideOrbit™ traffic systems), andor a business intelligence system (e.g., those available fromDecentrix™) that works in connection with a traffic system.

The features and functions disclosed above, as well as alternatives, maybe combined into many other different systems or applications. Variouspresently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications,variations or improvements may be made by those skilled in the art, eachof which is also intended to be encompassed by the disclosedembodiments.

1. A system for automatically managing delivery of digital media assetsvia one or more digital media delivery services, comprising: a firstdata store containing a plurality of digital assets stored as digitalmedia files; a second data store containing an inventory of digitalprogramming files, each of which corresponds to one or moreuser-selectable programs; a digital media server configured to accessthe first data store and the second data store and transmit the digitalmedia assets and the digital programming files to media presentationdevices; a campaign manager processor; and a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium containing programming instructions that, whenexecuted, will cause the campaign manager processor to: receiveconsumption data corresponding to digital programming files and digitalmedia assets that a plurality of consumers have already consumed,receive, from a digital media service that corresponds to the digitalmedia server, an inventory of digital programming files that areavailable for presentation to the media presentation devices at futuretimes, along with metadata corresponding to the digital programmingfiles in the inventory, receive an allocation value, receive a selectionof one or more campaign parameters for a campaign, analyze theconsumption data and the metadata to identify one or more digitalprogramming files in the inventory to which to allocate a plurality ofdigital media assets in the campaign, and automatically allocate theplurality of digital media assets for the campaign to the identifieddigital programming files in the inventory in accordance with one ormore campaign parameters and so that the allocating is consistent withthe allocation value for presentation to consumers via the mediapresentation devices.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprisingadditional programming instructions that, when executed, cause thecampaign manager processor to: analyze the consumption data and themetadata to identify one or more additional digital programming filesand future times to which to allocate additional digital media assetscorresponding to a remainder of the campaign, and automatically select aplurality of the additional digital media assets and allocate theselected additional digital media assets to the identified one or moreadditional digital programming files at future times in accordance withthe one or more parameters for presentation to consumers as theremainder of the campaign.
 3. The system of claim 1, further comprisingadditional instructions configured to cause the campaign managerprocessor to analyze the consumption data and the metadata to identify atime at which to assign each of the digital media assets for thecampaign in accordance with the one or more parameters; and wherein theinstructions to automatically allocate the digital media assets for thecampaign to the identified one ore more digital programming files in theinventory comprise instructions to perform the allocating so that eachof the digital media assets for the campaign will be presented toconsumers at the digital media asset's assigned time.
 4. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the allocation value comprises an extent to which oneor more of the user-selectable video programs may have digital mediaassets allocated in a number that is less than, or that exceeds, anexpected number for the campaign.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein theallocation value comprises an impression delivery value that comprisesan extent to which an actual number of impressions delivered may deviatefrom an expected number of impressions delivered for digital mediaassets in a campaign.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the allocationvalue represents both an under-allocation value and an over-allocationvalue and is a range around, or maximum deviation from, an expectednumber for the campaign.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein: the digitalmedia service comprises a television media service; the user-selectableprograms comprise television programs that a consumer may select bycausing a video presentation device to select a channel or on-demandservice corresponding to the television media service; and theconsumption data for each of the digital programming files and thedigital media assets comprises a number of impressions, as well as oneor more parameters about consumers who consumed the digital programmingfiles and the digital media assets.
 8. The system of claim 1, whereinthe instructions that cause the campaign manager processor to identifyone or more digital programming files in the inventory to which toallocate the plurality of the digital media assets and automaticallyallocate the plurality of digital media assets to the identified digitalprogramming files in the inventory comprise instructions to perform abatch optimization process by: simultaneously allocating the inventoryto multiple campaigns by: identifying a number of expected impressionsfor the campaign, identifying a number of expected impressions for atleast one additional campaign, and using a greedy algorithm, geneticalgorithm, tree search, integer programming, simulated annealing, localsearch or tabu search to automatically identify a set of digitalprogramming files to which the digital media files in the additionalcampaign will be allocated so that the number of digital media filesallocated to each of the digital programming files in the set remainswithin the allocation value.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein theinstructions to simultaneously allocate the inventory to multiplecampaigns further comprise instructions to: determine whether anycandidate campaign will conflict with the selected one or moreparameters, and if so reject that candidate campaign; and determinewhether any candidate campaign will be less profitable than a differentcampaign with which the candidate campaign's identified digitalprogramming files in the inventory could instead be used, and if soreject that candidate campaign.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein: theone or more parameters for the campaign include a smoothness constraint;and the instructions that cause the campaign manager processor toidentify one or more digital programming files in the inventory to whichto allocate the plurality of the digital media assets and automaticallyallocate the plurality of digital media assets for the campaign to theidentified digital programming files in the inventory compriseinstructions to: identify a number of expected impressions for thecampaign in a scope, wherein the scope is a time interval or acombination of a time interval with one or more digital media services,and allocate the digital media assets in the campaign to the identifiedone or more digital programming files so that a number of impressionsassociated with each instance of the scope in the campaign satisfy athreshold criterion, wherein the threshold criterion is that: the numberof impressions in the scope be not larger than a first threshold, notsmaller than a second threshold, or neither larger than the firstthreshold nor smaller than the second threshold; a number of impressionspresented in any instance of the scope during the campaign is notdisproportionately larger than a number of impressions presented in anyother instance of the scope during the campaign; a number of spotspresented in any instance of the scope during the campaign is not largerthan the first threshold, not smaller than the second threshold, orneither larger than the first threshold or smaller than the secondthreshold; or a number of spots presented in any instance of the scopeduring the campaign is not disproportionately larger than a number ofspots presented in any other instance of the scope during the campaign.11. The system of claim 1, further comprising additional programminginstructions that, when executed, will cause the campaign managerprocessor to: receive, from one or more of the media presentationdevices, consumption data for the digital media assets; analyze thereceived consumption data to determine whether the received consumptiondata indicates that an expected number of impressions of the digitalmedia assets of the campaign was achieved; and if the expected number ofimpressions of the digital media assets of the campaign was notachieved, automatically allocate one or more of the digital media assetsto one or more additional digital programming files in the inventory inaccordance with the one or more parameters for presentation to consumersvia media presentation devices.
 12. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising additional programming instructions configured to cause thecampaign manager processor to: cause a proposal comprising parameters ofthe campaign to be presented to a campaign requestor for review;identify a response time within which the campaign requestor mustrespond to the proposal; if the campaign manager processor receives apositive response from the campaign requestor within the response time,cause the proposal to be presented to a second entity; and if thecampaign manager processor does not receive a response from the campaignrequestor to the proposal within the response time, or if the campaignmanager processor receives a rejection of the proposal, then:un-allocate the identified plurality of digital media assets for thecampaign from the identified digital programming files, and if thecampaign requestor enters a prompt to do so, return the campaign requestfor an additional optimization process.
 13. The system of claim 1,further comprising additional instructions programming configured tocause the campaign manager processor to: receive, from a campaignrequestor, a selection of one or more constraints on attributes of atarget audience, wherein the attributes comprise demographic attributes,show attributes, digital media service attributes, time attributes,behavioral attributes, geographic attributes, or social attributes; usethe received parameters and the received constraints on attributes toidentify an audience segment; and when performing the automaticallocation, do so such that the plurality of digital media assets inaggregate will be presented to at least a threshold number ofimpressions or unique impressions within the audience segment.
 14. Thesystem of claim 13, further comprising additional programminginstructions configured to cause the campaign manager processor to:receive, from the campaign requestor, an indication that the audiencesegment will be considered a premium target; and use the indication asan additional parameter in the automatic allocation.
 15. The system ofclaim 14, wherein: the indication that an audience segment that will beconsidered a premium target comprise user-identified additionalconstraints on attributes of a target audience; and the instructions touse the indication as an additional parameter in the automaticallocation comprise instructions to give preference to theuser-identified additional constraints on attributes of the targetaudience in the automatic allocation.
 16. The system of claim 1,wherein: at least a subset of the digital media assets comprise dynamiccontent that includes a variable component that can be selected at thetime the campaign is presented to audience members based on one or moredynamic constraints; and the instructions to automatically allocate thedigital media assets for the campaign to the identified digitalprogramming files comprise instructions to, for each of the digitalmedia assets that has dynamic content: determine whether the digitalmedia asset's dynamic content satisfies the selected one or moreparameters, identify a dynamic constraint of the identified digitalprogramming files and determine whether the digital media asset'sdynamic content satisfies the identified dynamic constraint, and onlyallocate that digital media asset to the identified digital programmingfile if the digital media asset's dynamic content satisfies the selectedone or more parameters and the identified dynamic constraint.
 17. Thesystem of claim 16, further comprising instructions that are configuredto cause the campaign manager processor to, after allocating to thecampaign any of the digital media assets having dynamic content thatsatisfies the selected one or more parameters and the identified dynamicconstraint, update the automatic allocation to ensure that the campaignis still consistent with the allocation value and satisfies the one ormore parameters.
 18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a digitalvideo server that is configured to cause the identified digital mediaassets and the identified digital programming files to be transmitted tothe media presentation devices for presentation to the consumers. 19.The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions to allocate theplurality of digital media assets for the campaign to the identifieddigital programming files in the inventory comprise instructions toperform one or more of the following: whenever an interconnect networkorder for an interconnect is given a spot, provide the spot at the sametime in all zones of the interconnect; or whenever an audience order forthe interconnect is satisfied, provide at least the number ofimpressions that the audience order requested for each zone of theinterconnect.
 20. A method of automatically managing delivery of digitalmedia assets via one or more digital media delivery services, the methodcomprising: by a campaign manager processor, executing programminginstructions that cause the campaign manager processor to: receiveconsumption data corresponding to digital programming files and digitalmedia assets that a plurality of consumers have consumed, receive, froma digital media service, an inventory of digital programming files thatare available for presentation to media presentation devices at futuretimes, along with metadata corresponding to the digital programmingfiles in the inventory, receive an allocation value, receive a selectionof one or more campaign parameters for a campaign, analyze theconsumption data and the metadata to identify one or more digitalprogramming files in the inventory to which to allocate a plurality ofdigital media assets in the campaign, and automatically allocate theplurality of digital media assets for the campaign to the identifieddigital programming files in the inventory in accordance with one ormore campaign parameters and so that the allocating is consistent withthe allocation value for presentation to consumers via the mediapresentation devices; and by a digital media server, transmitting thedigital media assets for the campaign and the identified digitalprogramming files to the media presentation devices.
 21. The method ofclaim 20, further comprising, by the campaign manager processor,executing additional programming instructions that cause the campaignmanager processor to: analyze the consumption data and the metadata toidentify one or more additional digital programming files and futuretimes to which to allocate additional digital media assets correspondingto a remainder of the campaign, and automatically select a plurality ofthe additional digital media assets and allocate the selected additionaldigital media assets to the identified additional digital programmingfiles at future times in accordance with the one or more parameters forpresentation to consumers as the remainder of the campaign.
 22. Themethod of claim 20, further comprising—, by the campaign managerprocessor, executing additional programming instructions that cause thecampaign manager processor to—; analyze the consumption data and themetadata to identify a time at which to assign each of the digital mediaassets for the campaign in accordance with the one or more parameters;and when automatically allocating the digital media assets for thecampaign to the identified digital programming files in the inventory,performing the allocating so that each of the digital media assets forthe campaign will be presented to consumers at the digital media asset'sassigned time.
 23. The method of claim 20, wherein the step ofidentifying one or more digital programming files in the inventory towhich to allocate the plurality of the digital media assets andautomatically allocating the plurality of digital media assets to theidentified digital programming files in the inventory comprise:performing a batch optimization process by simultaneously allocating theinventory to multiple campaigns by: identifying a number of expectedimpressions for the campaign, identifying a number of expectedimpressions for at least one additional campaign, and using a greedyalgorithm, genetic algorithm, tree search, integer programming,simulated annealing, local search or tabu search to automaticallyidentify a set of digital programming files to which the digital mediafiles in the additional campaign will be allocated so that the number ofdigital media files allocated to each of the digital programming filesin the set remains within the allocation value.
 24. The method of claim20, wherein: the one or more parameters for the campaign include asmoothness constraint; and the steps of identifying one or more digitalprogramming files in the inventory to which to allocate the plurality ofthe digital media assets and automatically allocating the plurality ofdigital media assets for the campaign to the identified digitalprogramming files in the inventory comprise: identifying a number ofexpected impressions for the campaign in a scope, wherein the scope is atime interval or a combination of a time interval with one or moredigital media services, and allocating the digital media assets in thecampaign to the identified one or more digital programming files so thata number of impressions associated with each instance of the scope inthe campaign satisfy a threshold criterion, wherein the thresholdcriterion is that: the instance of the scope be not larger than a firstthreshold, not smaller than a second threshold, or neither larger thanthe first threshold or smaller than the second threshold; a number ofimpressions presented in any instance of the scope during the campaignis not disproportionately larger than a number of impressions presentedin any other instance of the scope during the campaign; a number ofspots presented in any instance of the scope during the campaign is notlarger than the first threshold, not smaller than the second threshold,or neither larger than the first threshold or smaller than the secondthreshold; or a number of spots presented in any instance of the scopeduring the campaign is not disproportionately larger than a number ofspots presented in any other instance of the scope during the campaign.25. The method of claim 20, further comprising, by the campaign managerprocessor, executing additional programming instructions that cause thecampaign manager processor to: receive, from one or more of the mediapresentation devices, consumption data for the digital media assets;analyze the received consumption data to determine whether the receivedconsumption data indicates that an expected number of impressions of thedigital media assets of the campaign was achieved; and if the expectednumber of impressions of the digital media assets of the campaign wasnot achieved, automatically allocate one or more of the digital mediaassets to one or more additional digital programming files in theinventory in accordance with the one or more parameters for presentationto consumers via media presentation devices.
 26. The method of claim 20,further comprising, by the campaign manager processor, executingadditional programming instructions that cause the campaign managerprocessor to: cause a proposal comprising parameters of the campaign tobe presented to a campaign requestor for review; identify a responsetime within which the campaign requestor must respond to the proposal;if the campaign manager processor receives a positive response from thecampaign requestor within the response time, cause the proposal to bepresented to a second entity; and if the campaign manager processor doesnot receive a response from the campaign requestor to the proposalwithin the response time, or if the campaign manager processor receivesa rejection of the proposal, then: un-allocate the identified pluralityof digital media assets for the campaign from the identified digitalprogramming files, and if the campaign requestor enters a prompt to doso, return the campaign request for an additional optimization process.27. The method of claim 20, further comprising, by the campaign managerprocessor, executing additional programming instructions that cause thecampaign manager processor to: receive, from a campaign requestor, aselection of one or more constraints on attributes of a target audience,wherein the attributes comprise demographic attributes, show attributes,digital media service attributes, time attributes, behavioralattributes, geographic attributes, or social attributes; use thereceived parameters and the received constraints on attributes toidentify an audience segment; and when performing the automaticallocation, do so such that the plurality of digital media assets inaggregate will be presented to at least a threshold number ofimpressions or unique impressions within the audience segment.
 28. Themethod of claim 20, wherein: at least a subset of the digital mediaassets comprise dynamic content that includes a variable component thatcan be selected at the time the campaign is presented to audiencemembers based on one or more dynamic constraints; and the step ofautomatically allocating the digital media assets for the campaign tothe identified digital programming files, for each of the digital mediaassets that has dynamic content: determining whether the digital mediaasset's dynamic content satisfies the selected one or more parameters,identifying a dynamic constraint of the identified digital programmingfiles and determining whether the digital media asset's dynamic contentsatisfies the identified dynamic constraint, and only allocating thatdigital media asset to the identified digital programming file if thedigital media asset's dynamic content satisfies the selected one or moreparameters and the identified dynamic constraint.
 29. The method ofclaim 28, further comprising, by the campaign manager processor, afterallocating to the campaign any of the digital media assets havingdynamic content that satisfies the selected one or more parameters andthe identified dynamic constraint, updating the automatic allocation toensure that the campaign is still consistent with the allocation valueand satisfies the one or more parameters.
 30. The method of claim 20,wherein automatically allocating the plurality of digital media assetsfor the campaign to the identified digital programming files in theinventory comprises performing one or more of the following: whenever aninterconnect network order for an interconnect is given a spot, providethe spot at the same time in all zones of the interconnect; or wheneveran audience order for the interconnect is satisfied, provide at leastthe number of impressions that the audience order requested for eachzone of the interconnect.